Abstract 12755: Increased Physical Activity and Higher Perceived Social Support Are Associated With Improved Quality of Life in Patients With Heart Disease Reporting Hopelessness

Introduction: Hopelessness has been identified in up to 52% of patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD). Hopelessness is associated with both decreased self-reported physical activity (PA) and lower perceived social support. Quality of life (QOL) is positively associated with PA and perceived social support in patients with IHD. However, the relationships among PA, perceived social support, and QOL in patients with IHD reporting hopelessness has not been explored.

Purpose: To examine the associations among PA, perceived social support, and QOL in patients with IHD reporting hopelessness.

Hypotheses: 1) Higher PA and increased perceived social support are each separately associated with higher QOL. 2) PA mediates the relationship between perceived social support and QOL.

Methods: Data were collected two weeks after hospital discharge from patients with moderate to severe hopelessness using the State-Trait Hopelessness Scale. Perceived social support, PA, and QOL were measured using the ENRICHED Social Support Inventory, Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise Participation Tool, and EQ-5D-5L, respectively. Linear regression was performed to assess the associations among study variables, controlling for age, gender, marital status, and employment.

Results: The majority of participants (n = 154) were male (68.2%) and non-Hispanic white (90.9%) with a mean age of 62 years (SD = 9.68). Approximately half of participants were married (53.9%) and not working (55.2%). Higher perceived social support and higher PA were each separately associated with higher QOL after adjusting for demographic variables (perceived social support: r _partial = 0.23, p = 0.011; PA: r _partial = 0.23, p = 0.007). PA partially (21.30%) (r _partial = 0.181, p = 0.040) mediated the relationship between perceived social support and QOL (r _partial = 0.172, p = 0.066), suggesting that increasing perceived social support may improve PA, thus improving patients’ QOL.

Conclusions: Our hypotheses of positive association among PA, perceived social support, and QOL were confirmed. Further research in larger, more heterogeneous samples is needed to examine potential causal relationships among PA, perceived social support and QOL in patients with IHD who report hopelessness.